In the second half, Paulus’ “The Veil of Tears,” a movement from a larger work called “To Be Certain of the Dawn,” precedes the Beethoven piece.

Playing a piece of music as iconic as this has its challenges, but also presents opportunities for rediscovering a classic. To that end, Guerrero is approaching the piece as though it’s new to him.

“I wanted to make a point of learning the piece as if I’d never heard of Beethoven, never heard of Beethoven 5,” he says, using musician’s shorthand for the symphony. “If this were a new piece, a world-premiere commission, what would I do with it?”

Though he already owned multiple copies of the score, Guerrero bought a new one so he could start fresh. He also packed away all of his recordings of the piece so as not to be influenced by approaches taken by legendary conductors Leonard Bernstein or Herbert von Karajan.

“Quite a few things have jumped at me from the page and I’m excited to explore them with the orchestra,” Guerrero says. One example is the tempo of the second movement, which he now thinks of in a “more lyrical way, a more operatic way. You need to breathe these melodies … you need to sing them.”

In addition to challenging himself, Guerrero also has a challenge for the audience. That challenge is to find the famous four notes as they resurface (“upside down and sideways, faster and slower”) throughout the 35-minute symphony.

Guerrero compares finding the various incarnations of these notes to the children’s book “Where’s Waldo.” The first one is a “freebie,” after that, the audience has to get to work, he says.

Stephen Paulus, composer

“No matter how contemporary the piece is, if there are bits and pieces that you hear coming back, you think, ‘oh, I recognize that’ and feel like a genius,” says composer Stephen Paulus, speaking by phone from Minnesota. “Some of the great composers think when in doubt, put it up an octave higher. Mozart and Beethoven, they repeat, but it’s an octave higher or two octaves higher or an octave lower.”

Paulus uses repetition throughout the second movement of “Three Places of Enlightenment,” which he says incorporates the feel of barbershop quartets. “I’ve had a secret admiration for barbershop quartets,” he says, drawn to them for their use of complicated chords and close harmonies.

He describes “Three Places of Enlightenment” as a “psychological orchestra monodrama.” It opens with the four string soloists playing the same note that gets passed around from one instrument to another and overlapping. The effect, the composer says, is like the sound of bees.

The piece has never before been recorded. “That’s why I’m so excited about Giancarlo doing it in Nashville because it’s a terrific orchestra, he’s a wonderful conductor and musician, the players are wonderful,” he says. (The symphony previously performed Paulus’ “Sea Portrait” in 2007 under the direction of Carlos Miguel Prieto; and Paulus and Guerrero worked together in Minnesota.)

Meanwhile, Paulus, who plans to attend each of the three performances, didn’t know Beethoven also was on the program.

“Ugh, really?,” he laughed. “Well, I’m glad I’m not following Beethoven 5. Two works I would never follow, Beethoven 5 or Beethoven 9.”

— MiChelle Jones, for The Tennessean

If You Go

What: “Beethoven’s Fifth”

Where: Schermerhorn Symphony Center, One Symphony Place

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Oct. 5-6

Admission: $44-$115

Contact: 615-687-6400 or www.nashvillesymphony.org

Below is a video of Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero speaking about the music of composer Stephen Paulus, which features the Nashville Symphony’s principal string players in “Three Places of Enlightenment” this weekend.